Distinctly Dutch - New York State Museum

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museum news Memory Keepers John Pasquini (right) and Ralph Rataul (center) interview Senior Historian John Scherer about his experiences at the State Museum. The two anthropologists initiated an oral history project to record the unwritten history of the people “who’ve worked at and shaped” the Museum. When Senior Historian John Scherer retired in April, he took with him nearly 42 years of firsthand knowledge of the decorative arts, popular entertainment, and print collections as well as information about the Museum’s history and day-to-day activities. While it’s impossible to capture all of a person’s institutional knowledge, an ongoing oral history project aims to record the experiences of longtime staff members to compile a history of the State Museum. Museum anthropologists John Pasquini and Ralph Rataul conceived the research project in April 2006. The 2002 death of Dr. Robert Funk, who served as State Archaeologist from 1973 to 1993, had left a void in their professional lives. They both considered Funk “a great resource and friend” and knew he had “a wealth of tales” about his time working at the Museum and could provide the answers to questions about decisions made during his tenure. As a result of this loss, Pasquini and Rataul identified a need to capture and preserve the first-person accounts, stories shared among colleagues, and personal remem- brances that shape an individual’s institutional memory. “Some of this information can and does live on in the written and oral traditions that surround us everyday as friends and co-workers reminisce about the individuals in question, but that information is secondhand and is often altered through these recollections and time,” says Pasquini, a director of the archaeology lab in the Cultural Resources Survey Program. “The Oral History Project collects these memories firsthand and records them for future generations.” Pasquini and Rataul, a research and collections technician for anthropology, have interviewed more than a dozen longtime employees and former staff members. During the recorded interviews, topics range from the general background of the staff members and how they came to work at the Museum to details about how they did their job, who they reported to, what accomplishments they are most proud of, and how the Museum operated. Oral histories have the advantage of being from the “insider’s perspective,” says Rataul, who points out that neither he nor Pasquini or the majority of the current staff were Museum employees at the time many of the recalled events took place. “These insider perspectives, covering the last half century, provide a very real conception of coping and thriving during periods of massive facility and management change,” says Rataul. “Potential blueprints for how we, the current staff, might promote and manage pending changes within our time at this institution can be found in these interviews… .” A key area of interest is past relocations of the collections, and many of the Museum’s senior staff participated in the last major move [from the State Education Building]. “We suspect the lessons learned during that effort would be applicable to any future relocations of the Research and Collections department,” say Pasquini and Rataul. The oral history initiative is one of several internally funded Research and Collections projects. Pasquini and Rataul were granted a percentage of time from their regular positions to work on this additional project. n 6 n Legacy
Discovery Squad Student Receives Prestigious Scholarship Ocasio Willson joined the Discovery Squad as a 9th grader looking for a job; this June he “graduated’ from the after-school program looking ahead to Vassar College and beyond. And the Museum community couldn’t be more proud of him—In April, Willson received a 2009 Gates Millenium Scholarship, a prestigious award that will cover the cost of his undergraduate education. The Albany High School graduate was one of 1,000 high school seniors from throughout the country, and 37 in New York state, selected for this scholarship. The scholarship provides educational support by covering the costs that remain after a college or university provides its financial aid package. The scholarship, initially funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is renewable each year. It will also provide funding for graduate school and doctoral programs, if the recipient pursues education in computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, or science. As a member of the Discovery Squad, Willson received academic and personal support, career guidance, and assistance with college preparation and applications. He mentored the young students in the Museum Club after-school program, helping them with homework and facilitating educational programs. He also worked as a junior counselor for Time Tunnel summer camp and as a staff host for birthday parties. This is all in addition to his involvement in about a dozen community and school organizations. “I’m the type of person who goes for any opportunity open to me,” says Willson. Stephanie Miller, the director of the after-school programs at the Museum, describes Willson as “the epitome of a role model” with his selection as a Gates Millenium Scholar. “I don’t know if I have Discovery Squad member Ocasio Willson, a Gates Millenium Scholar, helps Museum Club students with their homework. ever met a young person so focused and driven to achieve his goals …,” says Miller. “We are very proud of this young man’s many accomplishments and know that his strength of character and dedication to hard work and excellence will take him a long way.” n Dutch Apple-New York State Museum Hudson Heritage Cruise The State Museum and Dutch Apple Cruises offer a Hudson Heritage Cruise to celebrate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s exploration. To complement the new exhibition 1609, the Museum has teamed with Dutch Apple Cruises to offer a two-hour, narrated cruise on Albany’s popular Dutch Apple. And thanks to the generosity of Dutch Apple Cruises, the Museum’s educational programs will benefit from a donation from ticket revenue at the end of the cruise season. The Hudson Heritage Cruise is available on selected dates though October 31, at a special cost of $16.09 per person. During the two-hour cruise, the boat passes historic and contemporary landmarks. Guide “Henrietta Hudson” holds forth, covering these important sites along the shoreline. This mysterious, long lost “relative” of Henry Hudson shares her vast knowledge of the history of the Dutch in Albany and their interactions with Native People, sprinkled with a touch of humor and personal anecdotes from her many travels on the river. The cruise departs from the Steamboat Square dock in downtown Albany at 11 a.m. and returns at 1 p.m. Boarding begins at 10:30 a.m. For more information on cruise dates, please visit www.dutchapplecruises.com; for reservations, please call 518-463-0220. n – Lucy Larner, Executive Director, New York State Museum Institute Summer 2009 n 7
Page 1 and 2: The Magazine of the New York State
Page 3 and 4: contents Vol. 5 • No. 1 summer 20
Page 5 and 6: museum news Exhibition Explores Hud
Page 7: volunteers in action Jerry Haller M
Page 11 and 12: Update on the Schuyler Flatts Buria
Page 13 and 14: Tiny wine-red crystal of the tourma
Page 15 and 16: In 2006, the New York State Museum
Page 17 and 18: their family’s long history in ba
Page 19 and 20: NYSM in person Ryan Fitzpatrick of
Page 21 and 22: Table, c. 1760, exhibiting a type o
Page 23 and 24: Celebrate Your Child’s at the

Distinctly Dutch - New York State Museum

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